Should He Kill His Wife?

Last week, the court, in its final judgement, suggested Kanchan be referred to a government hospital, with the state bearing all medical expenses. This, however, is only a reiteration of the court's interim order which suggested constituting a medical board to examine Kanchan and admit her at pmch for further treatment. But even then Tarkeshwar got no respite. When he took Kanchan to the hospital, there was a surprise waiting for him: a paltry Rs 3.50 a day was given for her treatment under 'government rules'. He also alleges that a local bjp legislator, Nityanand Rai, threatened to "throw him into the river" if he didn't withdraw the case. Last week, a medical board set up by the state government referred Kanchan to Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (aiims) for further treatment.

Says Ebrahim Kabir, Tarkeshwar's counsel: "I suspect the doctors have done this to save their skin. The state has got away with its legal responsibility to meet the expenses of her treatment." The court, however, wasn't impressed: last Tuesday it passed an "oral observation" that the state government should take the responsibility of treating Kanchan by medical experts in Patna.

Whatever the eventual course of this case, chances of a historic judgement allowing mercy killing are almost non-existent in the country. Last year, a 71-year-old retired headmaster, a 58-year-old cycle repair shop owner and an octogenarian in Kerala went to the high court demanding the right to die. The court dismissed the petitions saying that all "artificial" death, whether "voluntary or involuntary", should be construed as suicide, a crime under the law. A point reiterated by Ravi S. Dhawan, chief justice of the Patna High court. Says he: "It's too inhuman to allow mercy killing."

Meanwhile, Kanchan, reduced to a vegetable and her body covered with bed sores, lies on a bed at her mother's home, staring vacantly at the ceiling. "Life has become a pain for us, the living," says Tarkeshwar. "I am fed up."